May 2012 Volume 6, Issue 5

Inspiring Teachers
Driving educational change through excellence in teaching

Travel is a learning experience

This month I have spent about transported from one 15 days away from home and this itself is a learning experience. Sometimes we This month:
Chasm between jobs and eductaion Uma Garimella...2 Prof Waghodekar, FOM.. . . 3 Interesting links 4 Sharing Time Dr B Palanki .4

scientists now believe that travel also makes us solve problems in a more creative becomes flexible and agile while dealing with unusual or we get back home, our mind has changed and is ready to

phase of day to another, from one climate to to another in a matter of hours. Whether you are

another, from one culture way because the mind

travel because we have to (but if you think hard, this is also negotiable), but at times we We travel because it is one of the basic human desires. With flights and taxis, now we get

on business or pleasure, a unexpected things. And when make you relaxed yet from routine. But

can travel because we want to. new place is likely to

alert, and brings a change attack the problems!

The month that was..

A visit to Center for Development of Teaching and Learning at National University of Singapore, 9th April. A brief interactive session at Global Indian International School at Singapore, 11th April 5-day CCE training for about 45 teachers at MALCO Matriculation High School, Mettur Dam. The descriptors in co-scholastic areas were discussed using Jigsaw reading, teachers participated in debate and GDs and assessed using the CCE rubric. Life Skills assessment and using inexpensive resources for designing learning activities were some other highlights. Trainers: Uma Garimella and Shankarson Roy. One day session on inexpensive resources (newspapers and hands-on science) and reflective teaching at Jubilee Hills Public School, Hyderabad. Trainers: Uma Garimella, Madhu Phani (Yardstick)

College Champions
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The chasm between education and jobs

Inspiring Teachers
I am not using the word industry .somehow people jobs when we use the word industry. For example, teaching jobs are not part of industry and neither are the various odd jobs which people get into when they are not industry ready! I am also not using the word gap, since it seems to be very said, MCA. I am sure his first choice may have been an IT point. So what is all this about engineering curriculum and wanting to give technical skills? For one thing, by calling it engineering degrees, we have only brought ourselves agony. Because, there is a certain expectation from such graduates which MOST of them lack neither a natural inclination/aptitude, nor acquired in the program. No amount of industry/ institute meetings is going to change that as long as students dont know what to learn from that curriculum. No amount of adding/deleting courses is going to help anyone. Any

Page 2 of 5
All the jobs require the employee to have enthusiasm and to have reading comprehension (we did that in school, remember?) which will put them on the path to learning what is required in that job. After some training, when they start working, they need an ability to conceptualize a problem and look for a solution. This may mean searching on the internet (with the right keywords), finding a real expert and asking the right question, or sometimes just looking at some data and doing some analysis. She should also have interpersonal skills and speaking/writing skills. In some jobs, some fundamental concepts that were studied may come in handy. But if we go back to the car sales executive and watch salesman even if they sound a little extreme examples all they need is to understand the product, deal with customer questions and be pleasant. As they go along, with open ears and eyes, they should learn more about the product and the customer and get better. Comment online at http://tinyurl.com/8656

seem to think of only certain jobbut thats besides the

More and more, I feel that by putting our youth in college, we are only delaying their onthe-job learning. Since in any case, what is taught (if any), is not used in the jobs that are there in the market. Perhaps, this is how the western culture evolved, where people start working, and they pick up a degree that will be useful to them much later in life. So when we go to students and tell them to use learning strategies and work on projects, and they turn back and ask us to show jobs in those areas, we may not have an answer. (And here I am talking of the average engineering student in an average college. The premier institute is a different game altogether. Or I am not aware of the game at least!)

huge. I was with a principal of a college when a person from Titan Industries was speaking about hiring fresh graduate engineers. He specifically asked for Mechanical Engineers who had confidence and communication skills with career goals (oh arent we

fed up these C words?) Since number of guest lectures to he asked for mechanical, we bridge the gap is not going to thought he was going to put them in production. But no, he had other ideas. He wanted them for their shops and not shop floor. Why Mechanical? They will stay. hmm In another incident, I met a young executive who gave me a test drive of a new car. I asked him if he was from MBA or automobile Engineering. Neither. He enlighten anyone. But then I think deeper and I see some light. This curriculum is only a test bed to learn thinking. Stop believing that anything from the curriculum is going to be directly or indirectly useful in any job (save a very small percentage or a large percentage if someone wants

to teach..but I will come to that bmc Contd on page 4 in a moment)

Page 3 of 5 Faculty of the month -

Inspiring Teachers
Prof PRAbhakar Waghodekar
particular? Language plays a vital role in education. If one fails to understand this coding perception of a subject drastically reduces, interest in the subject vanishes. In fact, compared to other languages, English is an easier one. The root cause is today faculty hardly refers to books of international status and they rely on books written by local authors, written in local English, a guide type book, examination oriented, and many a times appear as Some are appreciating, some criticizing. They say sending course material through e-mail makes students lazy. I respond them, I have to do lot of planning and homework to keep myself on track, I am growing with my students and students save lot of time for taking down notes in the class and more brainstorming takes place. Some are convinced a few are not. What is the role of language in learning? What is the trend in Maharashtra in general and your college in reference books in syllabus. It is the first and foremost duty of teacher to hand over a list of standard books to students and all his teaching need to be in line with these books. Four years duration is enough to reach to the level. Referring standard books while in final year say for electives, both students and faculty develop inferiority complex. In this respect Maharashtra is not different, save a few institutes located in metros. Read more at www.theprofessor.in . Dr Prabhakar Waghodekar is a veteran in teaching with 43 yrs of experience. He has been relentlessly working for bringing international quality to engineering and professional education. He was instrumental in establishing several colleges and programmes of study in Maharashtra. He wrote twelve e-books for free circulation on topics in management, teaching, project/seminars and soft skills. With a PhD from IIT Kharagpur, which won the research award for his guide, and numerous other awards in both research and teaching, Prof Waghodekar held several positions as faculty in Mechanical Engineering as well as an administrator. He is now advisor at Marathwada Institute of Technology, Aurangabad.

materials, notes and presentations to all students. In class mostly interaction takes place. I refer only standard books and handbooks. Solve the numerical. Show some CDs, and load latest literature including CII, MPI reports and International published articles When you were younger, what kind of teaching methods did you use? For theory: thorough preparation, solving each and every numerical problem from book of international status, using teaching aids like drawing diagrams on rolling boards, use of slides and transparencies. For practical: to attend it minimum for 2 hours, disassemble and assemble the parts, taking to nearby industry and neat journal writing as per schedule already circulated. Now you are a very senior professor, do you still teach? How? Teach mostly at PG level, occasionally for final year elective. I use extensively internet, sending all my (3-5 in a Semester) to students that is normally beyond syllabus. How do your colleagues react to your ideas and initiatives? How do you respond?

Inspiring Teachers
Interesting Links
Articles on education

Page 4 of 5

http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/04/25/rethinking-science-education-in-india/ Student projects http://students.egfi-k12.org/student-inventors-manu-sharma/ IIM Students see the other India http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tpsundaymagazine/article3292289.ece
Learning Difficulties

http://ripples-cel.blogspot.in/
General resources

http://www.channel4learning.com/

Funny or Sad?

Pre-school sites

http://www.storyplace.org/preschool/preschool.asp http://www.storyplace.org/storyplace.asp http://www.thomasandfriends.com/uk/Thomas.mvc/Home http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/earlyyears/earlyyearslinks.htm

Telugu Lessons

http://www.sahiti.org/learn/written.jsp http://www.sahiti.org/learn/spoken.jsp http://www.learningtelugu.org/ http://www.teluguwebsite.com/telugu_Alphabets.html

Alicia Catalano "To be tested or not to be tested. That is the questions." Phani Acharya "standardized schedule to go mad"

Hindi Lessons

http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/mideast/hindi/
Games in finance/economics

http://www.thirteen.org/finance/games/index.html

The father of a student phoned at 9 pm and said that one of the teachers is refusing to give back the notes prepared by his daughter and that I should ensure that the same is returned. I told him that his daughter should meet me the next day in the college so that I would do the needful. The next day she came. I told her that it is very easy for me to instruct the teacher to return the notes, but it might cause a little bitterness. Instead, the student should approach the teacher once again and talk sweetly and get back the notes. If all the methods used by the student fail, then I would step in. I told the student that she has to learn not just the subject but also how to manage people. Tomorrow, you will have to manage your bosses, colleagues, subordinated, mother-in-law, husband, children. I also told her that she should avoid using her father for such issues and that she should boldly attempt on her own. I told her the saying in Telugu that for some one to climb a palm tree, how high can be supported. She then tried her own methods and succeeded in retrieving her notes. The next day she came back smiling and said that she learned a very valuable lesson. Dr Balakrishna Palanki, Principal, Anjamma Agi Reddy Engineering College for Women, Hyderabad

Page 5 of 5
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Inspiring Teachers
When jobs are more technical, the domain may may be banks, markets, platforms, and even rockets), but the principle remains the to the growing number of freshers who want to be entrepreneurs in any segment, those who want to make films, those who want to be in sports, those who want to go for higher education abroad et cetera. And when I look at the curriculum in this angle, it is all the more important to teach it in such a way that these and go from text book examples to usage and

Chasm - education and jobs

Contd from page 2
experiments and noting down fabricated observations, but inquiring about the time in the society and see and by the jobs. They should indulge in discussions and collaborations, searching and collating using technology as a tool. They should also learn to spend some time with themselves to understand what is important and what is not. And when things are learnt like this, the youngster who graduates from the college will be more prepared to take on any job. And a teaching job too requires all these. Most often, people who are not suitable for any other job end up in teaching. And they seem to be getting way with it. All because there are compliance issues and the count of teachers is one part of it. In fact, I would say, more care should be taken in selecting teachers than anyone else. Because the future of our kids and youth is in their hands. And now, more than ever before, the future of India is in their hands since more than 50% of the population is under the age of 25!

change (from car and watch to communicating in our life. going to use those artificial

Nobody ever thinks that he is experiments, spend some example sentences of the text what is needed by the people

same. This applies equally well books in life. Then why physics? why electronics? is there any job in the world where people are given some material and asked to reproduce the same after a few weeks? But, thats what we are preparing them for. So if students are also told that they are learning these subjects to think in a certain way, to use some basic principles for problem solving, to be able to read and comprehend new information and to use it as a basis for

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basic skills are developed. Unfortunately, universities and colleges are missing this point and their assessment

system is checking the mastery higher level thinking like of the content of the application and analysis, to curriculum and not the spirit. be able to build things with And so are the students who their hands and heads, and to are always aligned to the be enthusiastic about new exams. And so are the things..then may be their attitude towards learning will be more open and their expectations from the college

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When we learn a language, we and from the placements will be realistic, if they dont get learn simple words and sentences, we build a small vocabulary and the rules of these employability skills. For this teachers and

grammar. But the real learning students need to use well is when we use the basic rules written books, spend more and apply in new situations time in working in the labs not just setting up